More Good News!

This past weekend there was a snafu with my blood pressure prescription and I could not get it filled.

I missed two doses before the doc could see me to write out a new prescription.

THAT, my friends, was a God thing. See, I've been feeling completely horrible every single evening and fairly crappy during the day as well since I've been on the meds. However, the particular medication that I was on was also good for preventing pre-term labor, so...

Anyway... I missed two doses and I promise I had not felt so good in such a long time. You know how when you feel badly for so long you forget what it feels like to feel good? That's where I was.

When I called the doc to tell them I could not get my prescription refilled the nurse asked if I had had any problems with the meds. I told her I'd been feeling horrible. The doc said he'd see me that day.

So off I went. I was nervous that my blood pressure would be up since I had missed a few doses of my meds, but I prayed like crazy that my BP would be down -- even lower than my last reading. I called my good friend back home in NC -- the butterfly lady -- and asked her to pray as well.

I even bought chocolate for the nurses who work in the lab and who take my blood pressure. I figured a bribe to get them to write down a lower number wouldn't be such a bad thing.

The nurse took my BP and wrote it down without telling me what it was. She said it was not bad and that she'd take it after she weighed me and after I'd had a few minutes to sit and relax. So, that's what we did.

The first reading was 122/82. Folks, that's TEN points lower than it was previously. That's without the meds. The second reading was 120/80. At that point, I was about ready to do cartwheels in the office. :)

Anyway... The doc saw me and told me we had two options, I could stop taking it altogether and they could monitor my BP to see how I was doing or he could reduce my dosage to 1 pill per day instead of two. He also asked why I have high blood pressure. I told him I had no clue.

There is no family history, even among my sausage-gravy-and-biscuit-eatin' kinfolk. I eat fairly well, not perfectly, but decent. I chase a toddler around all day. I told him that until I got pregnant, I'd never had a problem with my BP at all.

So after hearing that and hearing that I had felt horrible and been vomitting nearly every night, we decided to try me without the medication. WOOHOOOO!!!!! I could have kissed the doc at that point. Seriously.

The butterfly lady said a few things during our phone conversation that made me go "hmmm."

The first thing she said was that perhaps this little BP thing was one of those faith tests.

Perhaps God was asking me if I really trust him -- kinda like how he asked Peter if he loved him. If I really trusted him, then I wouldn't have been so freaked out, now would I? If I really trusted him, I would have shouted his praises in the doctor's face when he told me I needed to be on meds. (NO, I'm NOT saying that I would have said NO to the meds.) Just that I would have praised God anyway. Perhaps if I really trusted Him, then my anxiety after the first reading wouldn't have shot my BP even further on up. Good food for thought.

The second thing she said was that perhaps my anxieties from all the pre-term labor with Eddie fed into my BP being high. That, combined with seeing a military doc for the first time ever and having the med tech there about fall over when she saw that my BP was very slightly elevated could have certainly started a crazy thought train that made me incredibly ansious and thus raised my BP.

There again though, was I really trusting.

So, my highest reading was 160/90. My most recent reading was 120/80. The meds only typically drop BP by 10 points. Reaching the second trimester probably helped my BP come down a bit just because of the bodily changes -- I'll be generous and give it a 10 point drop as well. That leaves an additional 20 point drop that can only be attributed to the Master Physician. Most pregnant women see increases in their BP as the pregnancy progresses. I'm praying that in this respect I am atypical.

I am trusting that when I go back next week my BP will be completely normal and I will be allowed to stay of the medication. I like feeling human again. And perhaps now I'll be able to gain a pound or two.